This Diwali, Gift More And Spend Less!

By Expert Author: Dales Eden

Diwali, one of the biggest festivals on the Indian calendar, is around the corner. While the economy is busy taking a nose dive at its lowest ever, it cannot be held responsible for dampening Diwali celebrations. Yes, you still have to gift mithai (sweet) boxes to your family, friends, acquaintances, business partners, clients, employees etc. To save some bucks, people do consider giving cheaper gift items such as artifacts, mugs pens etc. However, it is customary to go share sweets and sweet items on this occasion. So, is there a way to gift everyone according to the customs and yet save some bucks?

On the occasion of the festival of festival, traditionally assorted sweets such as kaju katris, pedas, dry fruit mithais in various flavors, barfis etc are sent out. Dry fruits also have a special place and are often given out as assorted dry fruits boxes including as almonds, cashew nuts, raisins, pistachios etc. All these turn out to be quite an expensive affair and considering the state of the economy, we recommend some alternatives that are cheaper options and yet have a class of their own.

First off, it is best to categorize your list into family, extended family, friends, acquaintances, clients, employees, business partners etc. This makes it easy to allocate budgets for each category and accordingly choose a gift package. It is best to give something sweet. Hence, to the most important people such as family, business partners, clients, you can choose to send them a dry fruit mithai box which is one of the most expensive off the list. Or an assorted box of dry fruit mithais and dry fruits will also appear as a rich and expensive combination and cut you some slack. For the less favored, try the mawa mithais or an assortment of mawa and dry fruit mithais to maintain a balance.

Many cake shops in Mumbai offer cookies and chocolates too. Cookies and chocolates are the most inexpensive combination. If you have a recipient who you have to give out just ‘coz you know them and you do not wish to loosen your pocket even slightly, an only chocolate assortment is one of the cheapest giveaways and with great packaging, this can, sometime, appear more expensive than sweets at half the price. To raise the bar slightly, you can pick a great mixed assortment of cookies and chocolate together. This again is an inexpensive combination and slightly influenced from the West but a good one, I must say. Since this article comes from my experience in Mumbai, I, personally, know many cake shops in Andheri West especially Lokhandwala that dole out cookies, chocolates, sweets, dry fruits etc and also customize packing. So you are running around to get these sorted from multiple shops.